Judge blocks mining in key Miami-Dade area

MIAMI -- Rock mining companies plan to appeal a federal judge's ruling that put a stop to rock mining in parts of Miami-Dade County on the grounds it is endangering the area's drinking water supply.

U.S. District Judge William Hoeveler ordered three companies to stop work at certain northwest Miami-Dade County quarries by Tuesday afternoon, creating a protective zone around a well field that's a source of drinking water for more than 1 million people in South Florida.

Other rock mining can continue in the county and elsewhere in South Florida where limerock pits produce the material used to build many of Florida's roads and make concrete.

Hoeveler's order on Friday was cheered by environmental groups that sued federal agencies that had issued permits for mining.

Kerri Barsh, a lawyer representing White Rock Quarries, one of the three companies ordered to stop work in the area, said the decision could cripple the building industry. She pointed to a state Department of Transportation analysis that showed it threatened planned and future road projects and would raise construction costs.

"Any kind of significant curtailment of mining would have a devastating impact," Barsh said Saturday. She said the companies would appeal, possibly as early as this week, to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

The other companies ordered to stop working in the area were Tarmac and Florida Rock.

The Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council and National Parks Conservation Association filed the complaint in 2002, challenging the validity of nine 10-year permits issued by the Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Hoeveler ruled last year that the permits were invalid.

The area is known as the Lake Belt, and is home to four of the state's largest mines, supplying about half the state's cement. Mining been done in the 57,500-acre Lake Belt since the 1950s, creating thousands of acres of lakes, giving the area its name. A state plan envisions mining continuing for decades.